DALLAS – As the award completes its quarter century, Dallas Baptist’s Austin Listi has been tabbed as the 25th annual Howard Green SABR Metroplex Collegiate Player of the Year Award while the sixth annual SABR Metroplex Carroll Beringer Award College Division Player of the Year Award has been chosen as Texas Wesleyan third baseman Luis Roman. Both awards are presented by the Ernie Banks-Bobby Bragan DFW Chapter of the Society of American Baseball Research.

Listi becomes the 13th Dallas Baptist player to capture the SABR university division honor outright or shared, and Roman is the fifth Texas Wesleyan standout lauded since 1993 with a Green or Beringer Award. The duo will be presented the awards at 2018 campus events by SABR President Paul Rogers and Vice President Bo Carter and were chosen by the 2017 SABR Banks-Bragan Chapter awards committee.

Both awards laurels celebrate the memories of the late SABR Metroplex chapter original president Green, who was a legend in Texas professional and college baseball circles for over six decades and also served in several elected capacities in Tarrant County; and former Fort Worth Cats standout and longtime SABR member Beringer, who pitched in professional baseball for 14 years, was the 1959 Texas League Player of the Year with the Fort Worth Cats and served as the bullpen coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers (1961-72) and Philadelphia Phillies (1973-78).

Listi and Roman also led their respective squads to postseason play (DBU in the NCAA Fort Worth Regional and Wesleyan in the NAIA Hattiesburg, Miss., District tourney) and had two of the top individual performances in Patriots and Rams diamond annals.

Listi, a 6-0, 212, senior from Hargrave, Texas, was a second team All-America choice by Collegiate Baseball and a third team AA selection by the America Baseball Coaches Association after hitting .336 with 24 home runs and 55 RBI in ‘17. Listi’s 24 home runs were fourth most in the nation in 2017 and the most in a single-season in DBU’s Division I history dating back to 2004. He also hit 23 doubles and had a team-best slugging percentage of .735.

The standout senior also became DBU’s career home run leader with 53 home runs over four seasons his four-year career. He was first team All-Missouri Valley Conference as a sophomore in ’14 and as a senior last season while establishing four additional Patriots all-time records for games played (236), starts (230), at-bats (872), and runs scored (198). He is second in career doubles at Dallas Baptist with 68 as well as total bases with 499, is third in RBI with 186, and had the school’s seventh-best slugging percentage (.572) in the DBU’s Division I era.

During his four seasons at DBU, Listi was Freshman All-America in 2013 by both Baseball America and Collegiate and won second team All-Western Athletic Conference recognition. He was selected to numerous all-tournament teams and led the Patriots to back-to-back MVC tourney crowns in 2016 and ’17.

In the Fort Worth Regional in 2017 he hit four home runs with a pair versus Central Connecticut State and two against 2015 NCAA champion Virginia. Following the season, Listi was selected in the 17th round of the Major League Draft by the Philadelphia Phillies and enjoyed a stellar summer with Phils’ minor league affiliates.

Roman, a 6-0, 220, senior from Ponce, Puerto Rico, batted .370 with 41 extra base, 17 home runs and 68 RBI. He paced the team in at bats (219), runs (69), doubles (20), triples (4), home runs (17), RBI (68), total bases (160), slugging (.731), walks (37), and on base percentage (.462). He also played sterling defense as the starting third baseman in all 62 games for the 47-15 Rams.

He also was selected in the 23rd round of the MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres while becoming the 41st Texas Wesleyan player to be drafted and the fourth in the tenure of head coach Mike Jeffcoat.

Roman’s performance led the Rams to the program’s third-highest win total in 48 seasons of varsity baseball. The team was the Sooner Athletic Conference regular season and tournament runner-up and advanced to the semifinals of the NAIA National Championship Opening Round tournament.

He led the Rams were to a national ranking of 12th nationally – their highest national ranking since 2008 when they climbed to eighth. Roman’s 17 home runs’ total was the highest total by a Ram during Jeffcoat’s 16-year tenure, and he was 23rd nationally in home runs, 12th in total bases, 17th in runs scored, and 22nd in RBI. He ranked in the Top 50 nationally in 11 different statistical categories.

In the SAC, Roman ranked second in runs scored and total bases, third in home runs, RBI and slugging percentage, fifth in triples, and seventh in doubles.

They join the likes of previous SABR awardees such as San Francisco Giants’ star Hunter Pence (Major League Baseball All-Star) as well as Michael Choice of UTA, TCU’s Brandon Finnegan, Scott Malone and Lance Broadway, as well as DBU’s Drew Holder, Brandon Harper, Evan Bigley, Jason Krizan, Brandon Koch, and Boomer Collins (who also starred at TCU and Texas A&M), among others.